Modern shapes in the new Visio: org chart, network, timeline, and more

Recapping posts on the new Visio

Visio Blog — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 03:08:15 GMT

Over the last few months, we’ve been posting about the new Visio – discussing features in depth and introducing the editions that will be available. Before we get started on a new series of posts, we thought it would be helpful to summarize

Recapping posts on the new Visio

Visio Blog — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 14:28:44 GMT

re: Modern shapes in the new Visio: org chart, network, timeline, and more

jrCranstonRI — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 03:52:01 GMT

Wow! I only downloaded and installed Visio 2013 as a trial to check out the UML 2.x support. Two diagram types that I use the most as an architect are gone: deployment and component. What's up with that?

re: Modern shapes in the new Visio: org chart, network, timeline, and more

truekonrads — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 19:47:10 GMT

What a pity that UML component diagram stencils are gone! Please bring them back!

re: Modern shapes in the new Visio: org chart, network, timeline, and more

Ian Mikutel — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 21:21:05 GMT

Hi Ross,

You can do a search on the Visio Start screen for "network" and you'll see both "Basic Network Diagram - 3D" and "Detailed Network Diagram - 3D", both of which contain the old network shapes in their stencils for you to use.

Ian Mikutel, Visio Program Manager

re: Modern shapes in the new Visio: org chart, network, timeline, and more

RossL — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 21:01:50 GMT

How do I change the network diagram shapes back to the old shapes? I find that if I copy & paste the old objects into the new 2013 it auto-formats. Can I change this back?

Thanks,

Ross

re: Modern shapes in the new Visio: org chart, network, timeline, and more

Visio Team — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 21:33:37 GMT

Hi Joe,

For more information about Change Shape, check out our blog article titled "10 ways to be more efficient in the new Visio" that was posted on September 25th. For whatever reason, the hyperlink I posted above looks correct, but adds extra characters when copied and pasted as a URL.

We also have a new post out today on titled "Introducing BPMN 2.0 in Visio" that might help answer some of your questions (such as how to find the parallel gateway shape).

Thanks for your feedback about Visio help. I will investigate potential articles on BPMN. There is a training video “Achieve BPM excellence with Visio 2013 and BPMN 2.0” that you may find interesting. It can be found easily via web search.

For your “Check diagram” question, we validate all the pages at once. You can sort by page to see only the issues that interest you on a particular page. You can bulk select all the issues that appear on pages with non-applicable diagram types, and select “Ignore This Issue” from the right-mouse menu.

Stephanie Horn, Visio Program Manager

re: Modern shapes in the new Visio: org chart, network, timeline, and more

krinjp@hotmail.com — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 12:58:51 GMT

I'm sorry Stephanie, one more thing to address please... I have a Visio 2013 "file" containing multiple "diagrams" - i.e pages/tabs. Some of the diagrams are BPMN 1.2 and some are BPMN 2.0. One of the diagrams/pages/tabs is in the forefront...I'm working on it. When I click "Check Diagram" and select an appropriate ruleset for the diagram being worked on and run the "checker", it checks/validates every diagram/page/tab in the file instead of the single diagram/page/tab I'm working on. Please tell me how I can limit the "Check Diagram" to only specific diagrams and not every diagram in the file. (Don't forget, an ERM Visio file may contains loads of ERM-specific diagrams/pages/tabs.)

Thanks again. Joe

re: Modern shapes in the new Visio: org chart, network, timeline, and more

krinjp@hotmail.com — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 12:28:57 GMT

Stephanie, a thousand "thanks" for your reply...I wasn't looking forward to the amount of work that was staring me in the face. Your comment was extremely helpful. A few comments:

1. The link you sent sends me to a "Dang, the page has moved" page. Could you please verify and repost?

2. It would be more than great if BPMN 1.2=>2.0 [potential] issues would be documented in Visio Help. I didn't see anything there addressing my issue and your subsequent response. Other things seem to be missing as well...for example, a search on "Parallel Gateway" returned no results. Just doesn't seem to be much Help devoted to BPMN...

3. Tied to the comment above, is it my imagination or are there less BPMN stencils available in 2013 vs. 2010?

If I'm off, please set me straight. Thanks. Joe

re: Modern shapes in the new Visio: org chart, network, timeline, and more

Visio Team — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 19:48:42 GMT

Hi Joe,

There are a couple of points you bring up in your comment.

(1) BPMN 1.2 versus BPMN 2.0: There are changes in the standards with regards to the Task shape. If you are just using the plain Task shape, there's no problem, but you may actually want the new BPMN 2.0 Task shape with the additional properties if you are building more complex diagrams.

(2) Turning off a rule: If this change to the standard are not important to you, you can turn off this rule. When you see the issue in the Issues window, simply right-click the issue and pick "Ignore Rule".

(3) Use Change Shape: You can select all the Task shapes and use Change Shape to update them to the BPMN 2.0 task shapes. This will work well if you haven't filled out the BPMN 1.2 properties on the shapes: since the properties have changed between the versions of the standards, you'll lose the 1.2 properties on your shapes.

Change shape is explained in more detail in this post:

blogs.office.com/.../10-ways-to-be-more-efficient-in-the-new-visio.aspx

Hope this helps!

Stephanie Horn, Visio Program Manager